Phils come back to win in 11

Maikel Franco had never before in person witnessed Aroldis Chapman and his triple-digit radar gun readings. The Phillies rookie had only ever seen the Cincinnati Reds closer pitch on television.

"I just knew he throws hard," Franco said, smiling.

That's apparently fine with Franco, a good fastball hitter. The 22-year-old third baseman belted a 98-m.p.h. Chapman heater for a game-tying three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth of an eventual 5-4, 11-inning Phillies win Wednesday night at Citizens Bank Park.

Franco's homer, estimated at 414 feet to left-center field, highlighted the Phillies' four-run ninth inning. It came a night after his 418-foot bomb off Jumbo Diaz in the eighth inning of another 5-4 Phillies win.

"He's doing it," shortstop Freddy Galvis said of Franco. "He's doing it right there."

Cody Asche scored the winning run when Reds reliever Ryan Mattheus dropped a flip from first baseman Joey Votto on a Galvis ground ball. The Phillies' comeback spoiled a dominant eight innings from Reds starter Mike Leake, who saw his no-hitter broken up by a Franco single with two outs in the seventh inning.

Asche scored from second base on the game's final sequence. The third baseman-turned-leftfielder put himself in scoring position by smacking a one-out double down the third-base line.

"I should make that play," Mattheus said of his game-losing error. "There's no excuse for it. We practice that in spring training probably 500 times. I've got to make that play."

Chapman's blown save was his first since last June 28. The home run was his first allowed in a span of 741/3 innings. Leake, the Reds' No. 2 starter, was denied a win in a game in which he allowed only one hit through eight innings. Consecutive ninth-inning hits by Ben Revere and Jeff Francoeur chased him from the game.

"Leake had moving stuff, a moving fastball. He looked really good," Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg said. "Cut fastballs and sinking fastballs [to] both sides of the plate. A lot of movement. He was tough to get a hold of. He was pretty impressive out there."

Cole Hamels pitched to a no-decision after allowing just two runs over seven innings. The Phillies have not scored in the last 18 innings in which their ace was in the game. They have failed to muster a hit in 16 of those innings.

Wednesday was Hamels' career-best sixth consecutive start in which he pitched at least seven innings and surrendered two runs or fewer. The 31-year-old lefthander allowed six hits, struck out eight, and walked three. Both runs against him came on Brandon Phillips' fourth-inning single.

Hamels took the mound for the eighth inning and threw his warm-up pitches before Sandberg pulled him in favor of Ken Giles. The setup man threw a scoreless eighth, but Joey Votto's two-run home run off Jake Diekman in the ninth doubled the Reds' lead.

At the time, it simply looked like padding. But then the Phillies' youngest position player fueled a second consecutive come-from-behind win, the latest being the team's first this season when it trailed after eight innings.

"It's a great feeling, a great feeling for everybody right here," Franco said. "Everybody just keeps fighting like a team. It's a great feeling for us."

@jakemkaplan